Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

Having been an AAFCU customer and advocate for the last couple of months, I'm now starting to feel a little buyer's remorse and disappointment. They were starting to be my favorite financial institution with their 5.24% Platinum Rewards Visa with no fees and their 3.51% Dividend Rewards Checking. I was thinking they were too good to be true, and it turns out that that they were. Just like all the big banks, they have been rushing to make the 2/2010 deadline to raise the APR on their Visa accounts... now the best rate is 7.25%, which is still a good rate, but not necessarily an exceptional rate anymore. With that, the really big disappointment is they have also decided that while raking in more money from their credit card holders that they want to pay out less to customers putting cash in their CU. Today I leaned that they are lowering their Dividend Reward Checking account rate from 3.51% to 3.01%. WOW!

Keep in mind, credit unions are regulated to be "not-for-profit", so these moves are kinda disturbing. Alliant CU did the same thing... lured people in with fantastic checking/savings rates and decent credit card products. It will be interesting to see if AAFCU follows the same path. The thing is that their Dividend Rewards Checking requires you to make a certain number of transactions, deposits and be paperless in order to receive that rate. There are a number of other financial institutions with this checking product and they don't seem to be lowering their rates. AAFCU thanks for acting like all the big banks!

Re: Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

timber wrote:

Having been an AAFCU customer and advocate for the last couple of months, I'm now starting to feel a little buyer's remorse and disappointment. They were starting to be my favorite financial institution with their 5.24% Platinum Rewards Visa with no fees and their 3.51% Dividend Rewards Checking. I was thinking they were too good to be true, and it turns out that that they were. Just like all the big banks, they have been rushing to make the 2/2010 deadline to raise the APR on their Visa accounts... now the best rate is 7.25%, which is still a good rate, but not necessarily an exceptional rate anymore. With that, the really big disappointment is they have also decided that while raking in more money from their credit card holders that they want to pay out less to customers putting cash in their CU. Today I leaned that they are lowering their Dividend Reward Checking account rate from 3.51% to 3.01%. WOW!

Keep in mind, credit unions are regulated to be "not-for-profit", so these moves are kinda disturbing. Alliant CU did the same thing... lured people in with fantastic checking/savings rates and decent credit card products. It will be interesting to see if AAFCU follows the same path. The thing is that their Dividend Rewards Checking requires you to make a certain number of transactions, deposits and be paperless in order to receive that rate. There are a number of other financial institutions with this checking product and they don't seem to be lowering their rates. AAFCU thanks for acting like all the big banks!

I don't know of a bank or CU who is not making some adjustments based on the new regulations. This will likely be a fact of life for just about every person regardless of institution. Even the banks/CUs who don't make changes now may ultimately have to make changes later. Now some are being nicer than others by increasing the APR very little, some are going from fixed to a variable rate, and some are reducing their rewards.

Re: Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

You have too remember that yes they are not for profit but they still have to build and branch out just like any other financial institution has too do getting members signed up opening up new branches in new locations. I'm not a member of Addison but I'm a member of other credit unions and not all of them are making changes like this but for those that are remember they still offer a wonderful product and in most cases better then the competition so don't be angry because they raise it alittle as they just want to offer more products and expand just like anyone else IMHO.

Re: Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

Even at 3.01%, AAFCU is still my savings vehicle. Still better than anything at Alliant, PenFed, Discover, Amex that are 2% at best. I have no issues qualifying with 12 transactions and 1 ACH/DD. If I did, I would go with Alliant at 2% with no qualification reqs. My old Charter Bank Checking at 5.01% is down to 1.25% and so I moved it all to AAFCU. AAFCU is not the only one dropping the payout rate.

I am a bit miffed at the credit card though since I received my visa just before the holidays and got the change of terms last week. Two weeks was all I got at the low rate.

Re: Addison Avenue FCU a little less exciting in 2010

Given that I haven't revolved a CC balance since 1981, I don't look at (or care about, for that matter) CC rates, but I'm a compulsive saver/investor & I do follow deposit account rates closely. Only a tiny handful of financial institutions are paying out more than 3.01% at the moment, & the rankings change every day. Addison is absolutely top tier in this respect. Even Alliant's 2% savings rate, which has no direct deposit or transaction requirement, is remarkable in the current economic climate. (I also like the speed with which Alliant handles incoming & outgoing ACH transfers.)

To keep this in perspective, note that ING Direct, which pioneered high-rate online deposit accounts, currently pays out a maximum of 1.55% on its Electric Orange Account, & that rate requires a $100K minimum qualifying balance. (Balances under $50K earn just 0.25%.)

Yes, credit unions are not-for-profit, but they must at least break even. They can't ignore day-to-day changes in the economic environment.

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